Critical Care

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is a twelve-bed unit staffed by full-time Pediatric Critical Care Medicine specialists. This unit is the region’s only intensive care unit dedicated to the care of critically ill and injured children. Specialized services for the injured child include mechanical ventilation, sedation, pain control, nutrition, hemodynamic support and critical care nursing services. Protocol management of the severely head-injured child using national standards has been developed as a cooperative effort among Pediatric Neurosurgery, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, and Pediatric Surgery. The PICU at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital is notable for its high acuity level and low standardized mortality rates. The 1999-2001 observed to predicted mortality ratio was 0.67 placing this unit near the top of the first quartile of pediatric intensive care units.